IA3 2e Elysian thoughts

[*Furyou Miko]

Well, I just got hold of the updated Elysian rules in Taros Campaign. The book is a monster, as usual - I have to lie on the floor to read it comfortably! - but there are some important changes to the list.

First, the Long-range Scanner has changed significantly. Now it not only offends Infiltrators, it adds a penalty to enemy reserves. In short-range mode, it's suffered however - now only a single Elysian unit can take advantage of it against any target, rather than as many as are in range on a single target. Finally, it now comes on the Command Squad at the sacrifice of a lasgun or special weapon - Elysian Command Squads are evidently not intended to shoot things, which makes their BS4 a bit of a waste.

Demo Charges (S10AP1) have been replaced in the list by Breacher charges, which are used as a close-combat weapon placed in base contact with the model... rather a pain, since this puts paid to the old "deep strike and lob" tactic that made Special Weapon Squads so deadly in the previous rules. They also took a hit to their killing power, being S8AP2 now with only a 3" blast instead of the 5" saucer. They also have the 'Wrecker' rule, which is a bit like Tank Hunters but for Fortifications and Immobile Vehicles. Oh, and it can remove walls and bulkheads from play completely.

Lascutters are pretty much unchanged. Never used them before, probably won't use them now.

Tracking Beacons have replaced Homing Beacons, which is rather nonsensical as they now work just like very other Homing Becaon in the game, preventing scatter as long as you place the first model within 6" of the beacon.

Auxiliary Grenades have had a boost! They now operate identically to 12" range Grenade Launchers.

Some minor changes to the Navy upgrades - Chaff is now a one-use 4++ vs missiles, armourec cockpit is still useless in 6e because Stun and Shaken don't happen, IR Targetting has been fixed as per the FAQ and Illum Flares are now dropped as bombs. and are 1/turn rather than 1/game.

Combat Drop is where the shiny begins. It's not as awesome as it could be - Valkyries and Sky Talons already don't count towards the 50% reserves limit - but it lets you take up to half your Valks, STs, Drop Sentinels and Sentry Guns and deploy them via first-turn deep strike. It would be better if Infantry Platoons could do this, but we take what we can I suppose.

Iron Discipline works as you'd imagine. Basically lets you count as having a sergeant as long as there is one within 6" when taking rally tests.

Company Command squads are much of a muchness. Still basically the same as standard Guard command squads, except without options for Ordnance or Astropaths and no Commissar option. They can now have up to 4 special weapons or aux. grenades launchers, but... they have to swap their lasgun for them, and the long-range ground scanner is one of their special weapon options (costs as much as two plasmaguns!) So... not really gonna have any special weapons if you take the full complement of standard, vox and medkit. The Commander still can't take a lasgun.

Lord Commissar is... well, a drop Lord Commissar. Not much changed there.

Elites... Storm Troopers are Storm Troopers, although ours gain Dedicated Valkyries and a fourth Special Operations mission that pales in comparison to the others. This is a shooty squad that now has the option to charge on the turn it disembarks out of a Valkyrie that arrives from reserve... assuming it doesn't shoot or run first.

Drop Sentinels are now rather more expensive, but otherwise unchanged apart from being able to take advantage of the Combat Drop special rule and Dedicated sky talons - although you can only take 2 sentinels in a squadron if you want the sky talon.

Infantry Platoons... hm. I'm not sure. Command Squads, Heavy Weapon Squads and Special Weapon squads are all 5 points dearer now, whilst the PCS has only gained the ability to take as many special weapons as it has un-upgraded guardsmen, the SWS has gained lascutters and downgraded Demo Charges to Breacher Charges for the same cost, and Heavy Weapons squads have gained the ability to shell out a whopping 15 points for flakk missiles if they pay 10 points for a heavy bolter. Not really sure it's worth it, as with all flakk missile options. Drop Sentinels also increased in price as per the Elites section, but at least we still get them. Gods, though, the cost! In a 1500 point army, if you take a CCS and two Elysian platoons with meltagun SWS and drop sentinels, you can only afford two Valkyries!

Veterans are almost identical. They still suffer from losing out on Camo Cloaks with the Observers doctrine. They have, however, lost the ability to take any Auxiliary Grenade Launchers whatsoever, which makes me very sad.They also pay more for Missile Launchers than Heavy Weapon Teams, although they pay the same Flakk Tax. On the other hand, you can now have a heavy weapon team, three special weapons, AND a heavy flamer.

Valkyries are Valkyries. Why they added the note about not carrying Ogryns I don't know - we can't take them, and allied Ogryns can't ride Elysian valks!

Sky Talons are Dedicated Transports only now, which makes their Sky Lift rule somewhat egregious. Still, 100 points with Missile Pods isn't bad. Drop Sentinels can only take 1, which limits their squad size, but Tauros squadrons can take one Sky Talon per Tauros, which is very nice.

Talking of Tauros, they now share a unit entry with Venators (the Venator being a 20 point upgrade). That's nice, since it means that we can have mixed squadrons, however it also means that the Venator has lost out on its ability to take two hunter-killer missiles. HKs are horribly overpriced, though, and I know I'm the only person here who ever took them, so that's a wash in general. With the upped cost for Venators, it might be worth just taking three Tauros with Sky Talons for the extra anti-infantry flyer support, then just taking melta-SWS on naked infantry platoons in Valkyries for your anti-tank needs.

Vendettas now share an entry with Vultures, although I'm not sure why since the entry is mutually exclusive with itself. Just a page-saving decision, I think, since the only overlap is that they can take the same default navy upgrades. Losing HS Vultures is a pain, but the ability to take IR-targetting and Chaff Launches on Vendettas is worth it, I think. Sadly, no Punisher Vendettas added, which would have been epic.

Heavy Support sees some changes. Sentry Guns are now Artillery rather than Immobile Vehicles. They're still hit automatically in close combat and can't be locked in combat like immobile vehicles, though, and are only T6 W2 models... so they still get taken out by bolters wounding on sixes, but at least they get a 3+ save and BS3 now. Altogether, much better. 45 points for a twin-linked deep striking lascannon is probably worth its automated targetting woes.

Cylcops Demo Vehicles are now Heavy Support choices. You get 2 in a squad with a Valkyrie automatically. If you take a Valkyrie at cost, that puts the Demo Charges and their controllers at thirty points each. The controllers form a two-man unit. The Demo Charge itself is now S8AP3 Ordnance 1 Large Blast. They detonate during the Assault Phase at any point (even the opponent's!) and can be detonated at Initiative Step 10 if they get assaulted or make an assault - they can't fight, but they can charge! Oh, and if it gets blown up, it only detonates on a 6 now.

Navy Air Support now includes an option for Avenger Strike Fighters (YES!). The Thunderbolt also gained the ability to repair a Locked Velocity damage result instead of shooting - on a 6, it's fixed, just like a Rhino. The Lightning gained the Agile rule, as well, meaning it gains a +1 bonus to its Junk saves which is nice. Points costs and other options remain the same as from the previous book and IA: Aeronautica, although Hull Points have been included (Thunder bolt 3, Lightning and Avenger 2). All three come with Armoured cockpits automatically, which is kind of nice I guess.

Heat Seeker is now basically Twin-linked vs aerial targets, while Air to Air means a weapon can only target fliers... and fast skimmers. Ke he he. Bai bai, Eldar.

Overall, our balance is much the same. Some things got better (Cyclops, Sentry Guns, Navy Air Support) while others took a hit (Scanner, Special Weapons Squads, Drop Sentinels), and other things really stayed the same despite getting new rules (Stormtroopers). Sadly, still no Ratlings or Master of Ordnance (why can't we get orbital support? pout, whine), and the Master of the Fleet is fairly redundant (although I think he may stack with the Long-range scanner in long-range mode, which could be useful).

[Hellios]

Is the fluff basically the same? AM I basically buying the same book to make my army work in 6th ed?

[*Furyou Miko]

Yeah, pretty much, which kinda sucks. Although if you use my info above in conjunction with a Battlescribe file that's been updated, you may not actually need to buy it for that...

 

It's mostly a book for Tau players, since it updates all their FW stuff to sixth.

[Beachymike123]

i'd say i'm a bit surprised that the list didn't take more of of a hit considering the nerfs deep strike has been getting over the past couple of editions of 40k. i can't truly say as a player i am one to speak as i don't use the list myself (my traitor guard are largely thugs and mercs, but hey ho) but does it feel as if the spirit of the list is still there? if it is then i'd say this is all you need - everything else will fit in around it and you'll adapt to overcome our opponents. never should one underestimate the ability of the human legions. 

[*Furyou Miko]

The spirit of the list is still very much in evidence, yes, although the new temptation to take two Command Squads and just fill one of them with long-range ground scanners is awful, lol. It's not a strong army list beyond the easy access to fliers - the basic infantry cost too much for what they do if you give them any special wargear, and Drop Sentinels suffer from costing as much as Canoptek Spyders with barely half the killing or staying power.

[Nevetz]

With 2 Command Squads (one with an Officer of the Fleet) for a total of 210pts force your enemy to roll reservers only at 6+.. this means in most of the games no enemy aircrafts/deep striking and flanking units until turn 4.. pretty good and scrambles your opponent tactics ;)

[*Furyou Miko]

forget the doubled up and the OotF, he's useless. For 155 points you can force enemy reserves to need a 6+ by taking a CCS with three Long-range Ground Scanners. The last guy can carry a Vox for Orders and expanding the range of your Scanners if the enemy decides not to bring any fliers or reserves (since you can just deploy them in short-range lock mode for twinlink goodness instead).

Long-range Ground Scanners in Long-range Sweep mode do the same thing as an Officer of the Fleet, stack with each other, and force infiltrators to roll a 4+ to deploy within 24" of them.

[Nevetz]

I think I missed the point where it says that you can get more than 1 scanner per Command squad. VERY thank you.

[*Furyou Miko]

Yeah, they're a Special Weapon option now. :) but unlike the others, they're a Special Weapon option that leaves you with a lasgun, so you can actually have a scanner AND an auxiliary grenade launcher.

[nestor73]

Let me get this right; a CCS can take more than one Long Range Scanner; does that mean that if you have 3 Long Range Scanners in your CCS then 3 different units can benefit from short range lock?

[*Furyou Miko]

Yes, it does.

OR alternatively, you can completely screw over enemy reserves with long-range scan.

[Nevetz]

Also, if the scanners aren't still in play (reserve) do they work? (this is more for the short range lock mode, I don't have the IA in my hands and I'm not sure if the CCQ has to nominate the target unit to buff, in long range mode I think you just force -1 to enemy reserves and roll for deny infiltrations at the beginning of the game)

[*Furyou Miko]

I imagine they have to be on the table to work, at least as far as preventing infiltrators is concerned. Reserves, I'm not sure about, but nobody's going to be rolling for them before you get a chance to bring yours on if you have first turn or give them a Valkyrie.

[Malus Trux]

Nice overview. Had much of the same views when I saw a player's copy at my gaming store. A couple of things, more than likely FW will put out an FAQ saying multiple Scanners won't stack & that the Tauros will get access to up to 2 HKs again if the IA1 2nd Ed is any indication.

 

I fail to see why Drop Sentinels got such a huge price bump. I could understand 10 points as they're Scout Sentinels with deep strike but why 20 points? At least they're not the only means of mobile heavy weapons anymore. Its also sad to see the Thunderbolt is still priced as high as it is especially after the Death Korps of Krieg got access to it for 20 points less than anywhere else.

 

Overall I'm not too happy with the changes made to the list but it is nice to see that it was made playable again even if it does screw over a major way of playing Elysians. Why did FW think breacher charges were anything at all equal to demo charges???